Ukrayinka (Kyiv Region), 29 April: Almost half of Ukrainians live in small cities or the cities with the population of less than 50,000 residents. The majority of small cities belong to the category of depressed cities, which need state support for their development.
Almost half of Ukrainians live in small cities or the cities with the population of less than 50,000 residents. The majority of small cities belong to the category of depressed cities, which need state support for their development.
The participants in a round table meeting, organised by United Nations Development Programme and the Secretariat of Association of Small Cities of Ukraine have concluded that small cities` residents usually shared the same problems, which include poor amenities provision, problems with water supply, insufficient street lighting and poor roads. Among other problems are scarce financial resources in the local budgets, unability to develop general plans for cities` development, lack of capacities to manage solid wastes, unability to bring local communities closer to their cooperation with local authorities.
The city mayors, top executives from the Association of Small Cities of Ukraine, representatives of Government , international organizations and civil society have discussed success stories of local communities – partners of UNDP-led Project “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme”. Also, the participants analysed small cities` common problems and suggested proposals to the new National Programme for Small Cities Support for 2011-2017.
Over 20 city mayors, representatives of national Government, international organisations and civil society gathered in Ukrayinka in order to discuss abovementioned problems and jointly determine their cities` needs. Also the participants stressed the importance to adopt and implement the National Programme for Small Cities` Development for 2011-2017 and suggested specific proposals.
At the roundtable, the organisers presented a new publication “Success Stories. Building Better Life with Joint Efforts. Experience of Ukrainian Municipalities”, which sums up best experience in engaging communities to solving urgent problems in over 20 municipalities across Ukraine.
To support small cities, the National Programme for Small cities Support was adopted in 2004; however, it was not fully implemented, as experts say. The Programme's validity expires in 2010 and the Association of Small Cities of Ukraine initiated a new dialogue between small cities and the Government to design a new effective Programme. Today's round table meeting established a series of events for further dialogue between the local authorities and the Government. The Association of Small Cities of Ukraine will collect the proposals from the cities, which will be later analysed at the Annual Conference for Small Cities planned for 6-7 July, 2010.
The meeting was held by a UNDP-led Project “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme”, which works for improving quality of life in the cities. The mayors of the Project’s partner municipalities shared their experience of successful partnership with UNDP Project.
Bohdan Bilyk, the Chairperson in the National Forum of partner municipalities and Director of Department of Economic and Integration Development of Executive Committee at Ivano-Frankivsk City Council shared experience of engaging local communities to solving problems of collection and managing solid wastes in the city. “It is important to reform the procedures of solid waste management in the municipalities using ‘bottom-up” approach, engaging local communities. The role of community is to select the technology, establish fees, improve the services delivered by providing appropriate control”, he said. He also suggested uniting small cities for joint solid waste recycling, storage and building joint landfills (solid waste fields).
Another significant achievement is introducing municipal services quality management system ISO 9001:2008, as an effective instrument for improving quality of municipal governance.
Voznesensk municipality (in Mykolaiv region) introduced system ISO 9001:2000 in 2007 with UNDP/MGSDP support. In 2009 the municipalities of Novograd-Volynsky (in Zhytomyr Region), Dolyna (in Ivano-Frankivsk region) and Kirovske (in Donetsk Region) were assissted in introducing quality management systems in their towns.
Speaking of this, Yuriy Gerzhov, Voznesensk Mayor shared his experience: “Our experience can be a good example for other cities of Ukraine. The population of Voznesensk is 40,000 residents, but the size of city doesn’t matter here, as general principles are introduced into the process of municipal services provision for major processes of the City Council.
This means clear and comprehensive distribution of authority and responsibilities in all structural departments of the City Council, shift of the personnel mentality, vision of organisation and fulfilling the tasks, building transparency of decision-making process ”.
At present, UNDP Project “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme” (UNDP/MGSDP) has 28 partner municipalities and settlements of municipal type. All municipalities apply community–based development approach and receive more and more recognition from national agencies due to municipalities achievements. Iryna Skaliy, UNDP/MGSDP Project Manager presented Project’s publication “Success Stories. Building Better Life with Joint Efforts. Experience of Ukrainian Municipalities”.
The success stories cover experience of cities and communities, which joined their efforts and achieved outstanding results. The authors of the stories include city mayors and their deputies, Projects` municipal coordinators, local community leaders and local journalists, who share the secrets of success and describe the steps to be taken for solving specific problems. The publication lists authors` contacts.
These examples could be used as best practices in reforming housing and municipal economy, establishing effective owner, etc.
In addition, the success stories describe innovative instruments for improving municipal governance and building constructive dialogue among local authorities and communities through introduction of municipal services quality management system in accordance with ISO 9001:2008, organising inter-municipal visits, implementing projects for energy-saving and increasing energy-efficiency in the municipalities.
One of key elements of Project’s work is improving national policy and legislation, therefore a chapter is devoted to this subject. The full text of the publication can be found here (in Ukrainian).
The participants of the round table included Iryna Skaliy, UNDP/MGSDP Project Manager, Pavlo Kozyryev, Ukrayinka City Mayor, Bohdan Bilyk, the Chairperson of the National Forum of partner municipalities and Director of Department of Economic and Integration Development of Executive Committee of Ivano-Frankivsk City Council, Mykola Borovets, Novograd-Volynsky City Mayor (Zhytomyr Region), Anatoliy Busenkov, Rubizhne City Mayor (Luhansk Region), Vasyl Melnychuk, Chief specialist of Regional policy Department of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Oksana Vetlynska, Chief specialist of the Department for Cooperation with Associations of local self-government bodies of Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, City Mayors and representatives of mass-media.
UNDP/MGSDP was initiated in 2004 for promoting democratic governance aimed at improving the livelihoods of people in urban areas across Ukraine under the framework of public-private partnership.
The Programme cooperates with community-based organisations, academia and civil society organisations in 23 municipalities and 5 settlements of municipal type across Ukraine and other partners in private and public sectors. Together they apply various sustainable development mechanisms. Since 2004, UNDP/MGSDP supported 232 local community projects with a total cost of UAH 26.3 mln.
For more information on the Project's activities, please visit: http://msdp.undp.org.ua
For more details, please, contact www.msdp.undp.org.ua, Galyna Smirnova, Monitoring and Communications Officer of UNDP/MGSDP, by tel. (044) 253 5068 or via e-mail: galyna.smirnova at undp.org.ua
